Believe it or not, kiddos, there were other games in the Warcraft series than just a certain MMORPG. Warcraft III, which came out two years prior to World of Warcraft, was a smash hit that was soon overshadowed by its massively multiplayer sequel.

That doesn’t mean that Blizzard completely forgot about the game — or that players stopped enjoying it. Similar to how the studio continued to support Diablo II a decade or so after its release, Warcraft III is due for a gameplay improvement patch in the near future.

Patch 1.28.6 is currently on the test realm (a first-ever PTR for the title, in fact). The main focus here is to make maps more balanced and easier on the eyes so that all sides have a more-or-less equal start to each game. Still, the team admits that there are still projects that it wants to accomplish with this 15-year-old game: “We are aware Warcraft III matchmaking is a bit long in the tusk; we will be improving matchmaker logic for a future patch.”

A bit late.. but you know what they say. I need a good old RTS to kill time on my tablet when I need a break from the PC’s. At least I hope they include different play modes including solo play against the machine.

Blizzard might be one of the last few great game companies that seem to put gamers first, instead of just another quarterly profit earnings call. Don’t get me wrong, they make truck loads of money, but they seem to listen to their audience and make changes to their games that do not help short term profits, but continue to increase loyalty. Whether it was all of the loot changes in Diablo 3 to make it rewarding for players, Overwatch’s non-gamebreaking cash shop, Hearthstone giving away an adventure for free, or updating a 15-year old game that makes them next to zero dollars.

I may not play what’s in Blizzard’s library anymore, but I will always hold their company in high regard, so when they decide to make a game type I’m interested in, I’m sure I’ll be one of the first in line to buy it.

The only reason they do this to a 15-year old game is that next year they will announce its remastered version. Just like they did with Starcraft this year. It’s not charity or some unusual altruistic step to help gamers – they expect profit from this.

Gamers first is what Activision would like people to think, but they’ve been very far from that for many years now. The company is all about cash and merely tries to maintain the old Blizzard legacy as long as they can through cheap symbolic gestures that don’t cost them much.

If you think a company managed by Kotick is not all about money, you’re either naive or don’t remember the Blizzard of 10+ years ago.

Blizzard is much less exploitative than the vast majority of game dev houses out there, regardless if they want to sell a remastered version of Warcraft. With very few exceptions, most F2P games are infinitely more scummy than anything Blizzard has made, and Hearthstone is F2P.

And yes, I remember the era of Warcraft 1, Diablo and Diablo 2 and still think Blizz is relatively the same company it was then–just bigger, and more capable.

As far as I know, SC will be distributed for free to owners of the original version. Everyone else will have to pay for it.

Activision very rarely runs any discounts or sales, even with old games. The only time they lower prices is when a new expansion / DLC is being launched. To have any of their games for free would be truly shocking.

Even EA is better in this regard – for example their C&C series was indeed made available for free to everyone (I think it was on the 10th anniversary of the original game) and the pack included around 10 C&C games in total, whereas if you want Blizzard’s old games, they’re either completely unavailable (except through Ebay) or you have to pay for them – no matter how old they are.